The Second Day 

This time, the shop keeper wakes me up in time that we can go to the woods together. It feels nice, waking up at her side. I must’ve slept the whole night cocooned in her warm embrace, her fingers laced with mine and her body curled around me. Like before, she never took off her shirt. But I’d expected it this time, and it didn’t bother me as much. It still feels rough against my own bare skin, but I don’t mind. Being cuddled by her is nice enough to forget it at all.

“Feeling well rested, sleeping beauty?” The apothecary teases, touching my messy hair. Swatting her hand away, I heave myself over to her washroom. By the time I re-emerge, she has changed into a slightly different black shirt and her signature black trousers, the same ones that I was wearing yesterday. 

“Ready to go? I’ll be able to collect twice as much as normal, with you by my side to carry extra baskets,” the shop keeper grins, confidently taking my hand in hers and leading me down the stairs. The two dogs greet us at the bottom of the stairs with big doggy grins and wagging tails, as eager as ever to see their master. The shop keeper releases my hand so that she can give her dogs plenty of love while I go to the kitchen to find something we can bring with us to eat later. Procuring some dried bird meat or something and some fruit, I make my way back to the shop keeper, where she is securing her axe on her back and a knife on her thigh. I just have my bow. 

“Today we’re looking for some herbs that look like this,” the shop keeper pulls out a jar from her desk with some dried plants in and I try to memorise its leaf patterns. 

“Got it. Want me to hunt while you forage?” I suggest, knowing that I’m generally far better at shooting things than searching through the undergrowth. The shop keeper smiles, taking my hand back in hers.

“Sounds like we will make a great team.”

The apothecary has a lot planned today, it seems. We spend the morning in the forest and come back with two rabbits, 3 birds and a shit ton of plants that I’ve never even seen before. The moment we step through the door, she changes the sign on the shop door to say ‘open’ before instructing me on what to do in case a customer walks in. Major and Minor stand guard at the front of the shop, not looking as intimidating now that I know what overgrown puppies they’re like on the inside. No one enters the shop for around an hour, which gives the shop keeper time to sort through what we brought back from the forest.

“I need to go to the market later, the last few ingredients I need for the poison are things that I can normally get from there,” she informs me before welcoming a customer. She speaks with the person for a while before selling them one of the pre-made healing potions. A couple more people wander in an out through the afternoon, some requesting special potions and some buying the regular ones. A few of the people seem to know the shop keeper, enough at least to smile at her and ask how she is, but none seem particularly friendly with her, and a few don’t know her at all. They must be like me, then - travelling to this town specifically for the apothecary’s magic potions. It’s quite impressive that she’s made such a name for herself, but then again this shop could’ve been run by her parents before her, for all I know. 

Which is absolutely nothing.

I know nothing about the shop keeper.

And that’s ok. I don’t need to know anything. I just need that poison.

But still, maybe if my life was different, maybe if I wasn’t hunting down a monster, maybe…maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if life was like this every day; waking up in a lover’s warm embrace, spending time with them and their dogs, working together, cooking together, and then satisfying each other. 

Maybe a life like that would be nice.

But that’s not for me.

I’m going to kill my father and then myself.

And that’s my future - not this.

The marketplace is in a small square, every inch of it packed with stalls selling all kinds of things. The shop keeper leads me past the clothing, the household objects, the food, all of it - to one little stall, hidden away in a corner. It takes me a moment to realise what I’m even looking at to begin with, until I realise that these must be magic items of some sort. I’ve never tried to learn magic - everyone could, if they wanted, but it takes years to even be able to channel mana properly. Normally it’s only nobles who can afford to spend all that time focusing on rigorous magic training, which is why people like the apothecary are so unusual - she must have trained for a long time in order to make magic potions, something that commoners like her wouldn’t normally be able to do. It’s not like she could’ve learnt it intuitively, either - she would’ve needed a magic tutor, which cost a small fortune to hire for so many years.

It’s why my mother never got me a tutor. After she and I left my father, we had nothing that we had before. I suppose that Apella must have studied magic though - Father was a renowned mage, after all, and he had the funds to pour into his favourite daughter’s magic tuition. That’s why I need this magic poison - if I used a regular poison, a skilled healing mage would be able to combat it. And the chances of Father having one at his estate has got to be high. 

I was foolish for thinking that I could still kill him without that poison. Sure, I’d hurt him, but it would do nothing in the long term. 

But with that poison, I can ensure his death. 

I will ensure his death.

“Well if it isn’t my favourite apothecary,” the man behind the stall smiles, his expression warm as he regards the shop keeper. She smiles in return, squeezing my hand before letting go and crossing her arms over her chest casually. 

“Rius. I need two marks of Llium for a potion. How much are you wanting for it these days?” 

“For you? A couple of those potions I always take from you,” Rius taps his chin before pulling a box out from beneath the stall. “Two marks of Llium I can do no problem. What else do you need?” 

The shop keeper rolls her eyes, but her expression is clearly playful. This must be a friend of hers of some sort, she never interacts with the customers this relaxedly. 

“You know me too well. I need five marks of Root Bind too, I don’t suppose you have five on you now?”

Rius shakes his head, his dark hair resting in long swathes across his shoulders, somehow elegant despite his otherwise rough-looking exterior. “I can do you for two now, but it’ll take me three days to get all five together. Do you want them all at once?”

The shop keeper nods, taking what must be that Llium from Rius - it just looks like some odd rock thing, and it definitely wasn’t on the table with the other items, which all look like enchanted everyday objects, making them stronger or last longer, that type of thing. But this must be a magical resource or ingredient - I had no knowledge of these kinds of things at all, but then again I’ve lived a bit of an odd life up to this point. I went from a rich noble to a commoner overnight and then I became a wandering traveller, so…my knowledge of the world is a little gappy.

“Just the Llium in that case. You can take them now, and I’ll come by your shop in three days to deliver the Root Bind. I’ll pick out my potions then,” Rius smiles again, reaching forwards and touching the shop keeper’s arm lightly. She gives him a strange, almost sad look as she squeezes his hand. 

“I have some stronger ones, if she needs more?” She says quietly, but Rius shakes his head. 

“It’s alright. She’s ok. She’s…the same,” he murmurs so softly that I nearly miss it. I don’t know who they’re talking about, but the way Rius says it heavily implies that whoever it is, she definitely is not alright or ok. 

I suppose everyone is struggling with something, and everyone is just trying to get by. 

Everyone is just trying to survive.